Eating In Translation

Khe-Yo

(This venue is closed.) My laap-pa was tame, and seasoning was not the issue. Ideally a Lao dish of this sort, however you spell the name, should evoke a sense of wildness; traditionally the featured protein is minced. By contrast, Khe-Yo's laap (first photo, $13, including sticky rice) featured Long Island fluke in sashimi-like slices that are laid side by side, to be reeled in one by one. Despite the ebullience of the other ingredients — banana flower, mint, kaffir lime leaf, galangal chips, toasted rice powder — the portioning is fussy. It's possible that the kitchen slices the fish, rather than minces it, to reassure customers who have never eaten laap with just their fingers.

Also shown: pork belly and shrimp rolls ($9) in deep-fried wheat flour skins. With accompaniments of your choosing, they're destined to be cupped in lettuce and dipped in "sweet carrot" sauce.

Khe-Yo (pronounced Key-yo)
157 Duane St. (Hudson St.-West Broadway), Manhattan
212-587-1089
www.Khe-Yo.com

Cheese-dog art

Bowery between Rivington and Delancey Sts., Manhattan
www.Twitter.com/CheeseNYC
(cheese content varies)

Super(Duper)Market

Plump fruit deserves much of the credit, I'd say: Blueberry lemon vanilla is the most popular flavor of preserves produced by Detroit-based Beau Bien Fine Foods. The company's Michigan apple mustard (9 oz., $12), by contrast, has none of that full-bodied appeal. Yet it's quite tempting to ignore Beau Bien's genteel counsel ("a natural to pair with pork or chicken") and simply to tuck in with a spoon.

Many Brooklyn-based specialty-food makers are on hand, of course, but this compact indoor event also affords close encounters with dark milk chocolate imbued with black licorice, from Springfield, Missouri; Gulf Coast oysters (in crocheted form only) from New Orleans; and ice cream flavored with bourbon and corn flakes, from San Francisco.

Super(Duper)Market
268 Mulberry St. (Prince-East Houston St.), Manhattan
www.PaperMag.com/2013/07/ super_duper_market.php
(The 2013 market takes place on August 2-4; see website for hours)

Biagi

(This venue is closed; gelati, but not sorbetti, are still available at other outlets.) Brightly flavored strawberry and lemon sorbets (small, $4.80).

Biagi
235 Elizabeth St. (Prince-Houston Sts.), Manhattan
212-219-8094
www.ABBiagi.com
Closed Monday

Mangez Avec Moi

(This venue is closed.) Though the published menu is Southeast Asian with a heavy emphasis on Thai, Mangez Avec Moi has long been known as the place to make a Lao connection. At least as far back as 2005, the hivemind at Chowhound observed, without offering specifics, that the restaurant served some Lao dishes. More recently the United Nations of Food reported that one can summon up a Lao dinner, provided that the chef has ample advance notice to source the appropriate ingredients.

That's changed, for the better. Beginning in late afternoon, after the lunchtime rush, a terse menu of Lao dishes (listed above) is now reliably on offer every day. Papaya salad heads the list, but also consider yum yor, a cool heap of julienned ham, carrot, and lots of onion that suggests a chef's salad gently tweaked with fresh chili. If you prefer your food fiery, hot sauce is available at the table, though you may want to insist that the kitchen do its spicy best. As a countermeasure, it's good to keep a cold BeerLao, either the lager or the dark, at the ready.

Several other Lao dishes are also prepared from day to day (advance requests continue to be accepted, too). A subtly seasoned larb included not only chicken meat but also thin, chewy slices of heart. The standard accompaniment, sticky rice, also served to sop up the sour liquid in bamboo stew (not shown), another Lao dish prepared in rotation. This day I was offered just a small bowl, to sample; another evening, bamboo stew will be my main.

Mangez Avec Moi
71-73 West Broadway (Warren-Murray Sts.), Manhattan
212-385-0008

Le Pescadeux

That looks very moist, you might say, for Montreal smoked meat. Made from brisket, typically it resembles New York-style pastrami but is cured with more peppercorns and other spices and not as much sugar. This French-Canadian restaurant adds another distinction: After maple-smoking the meat, the chef braises it for several hours in veal stock. The result is mellower and, yes, moister than the classic version; grilled rye helps this sandwich (lunch, $12) hold its form. Also available atop poutine.

Le Pescadeux
90 Thompson St. (Prince-Spring Sts.), Manhattan
212-966-0021
www.LePescadeux.com

"Carrying On"

"Carrying On"
Janet Zweig and Edward del Rosario, 2004
Several of nearly 200 figures in the Prince St. station, Manhattan
www.MTA.info/mta/aft/permanentart/permart.html?agency=nyct&line=R&station=14&xdev=1434

Lotus Blue

(The Manhattan location is closed.) Steamed pork belly with Yunnan candied plum (at lunch, $12), served with a fist of bok choy and a bowl of white rice, which absorbed the ample juices.

Lotus Blue
110 Reade St. (at West Broadway), Manhattan
212-267-3777
Also inside Lotus Market on West Di'an Men St. Beijing
www.LotusBlueBar.com

Old Coke, New Stella

West Broadway at Grand St., Manhattan

Prince St. Pizza

Tiny tiles of boiled ham — prosciutto cotto — were famously employed by Joe's Superette in its fried-to-order prosciutto balls. That venue shut its well-worn door in 2011, but a former manager, reported Chowhound, prepares them on Prince St. to the old recipe.

Mine, fresh fried, were meant to be a little cool on the inside, said the counterman, the better to show off the flavors of mozzarella, asiago, and parmigiano-reggiano. Though the going rate in Soho ($1.25 each, no minimum) is about twice the price I last paid in Carroll Gardens, it still seems like a deal.

Prince St. Pizza
27 Prince St. (Mott-Elizabeth Sts.), Manhattan
212-966-4100
www.PrinceStPizza.com